BAYSIDE, NY - The playoffs continue on Thursday at the Beacon Back-to-School Classic featured three games.

The second half of the Cardozo faced St. Mary's in the opening foray followed by Boys High against Long Island City. The evening ended with Elmont versus Forest Hills. NYCHoops.net was there to watch three team go fishin'.

Dozo (B) blows thru St. Mary's, 52-41

The players from the second half of the Cardozo's team were clearly the strongest faction with the addition of the highly recruited Jermaine Lawrence (20 points). To the St. Mary's Gaels credit, they did hold their own throughout most the first half.

Lawrence would show his versatility from the wing and put Cardozo ahead at the 8:45 mark. Point production from big man Sven Hunt (4 points) and 6'3" Darnell Holmes (10 points) along with sloppy play from the Gaels catapulted Dozo up by 10 points with 2 minute until the midway point.

Cardozo maintained a 29-20 lead as the second half began but buckets by 6'4" senior Travis Whitfield (15 points) and a trey from Larry Paschal (9 points) would soon put St. Mary's back in the hunt.

In the end, the Gaels had no answer for Lawrence and Dozo would run up their lead and run out the clock to advance.

Boys High obliterates L.I.C, 71-50

NY Yankees relief pitcher Mariano Rivera wins baseball games the same way. Batters know exactly what type of pitch he's going to throw but they still can't hit his fast ball. Such is the case with the players from Boys & Girls HS on the basketball court. The Brooklyn PSAL school has a system in which they relentlessly pressure opponents defensively and play an up-tempo game on offense and basically dare teams to keep pace.

The players from Long Island City kept pace until there was 11:15 left in the first half when Xavier Jones (16 points) and Jonathan Mansfield (5 points) scored to give them a 12-10 advantage.

5'11" senior guard Bryce Jones (17 points) would quickly tie the game from the perimeter and moments later, Leroy Fludd (17 points) would dunk with authority giving Boys High the lead with 10:04 left in the opening half.

At the 9:10 mark, Fludd would score a tough and-1 basket and L.I.C. would never see the lead again. Nick Jackson (2 points) would score increasing Boys & Girls lead to 6 points. While a bucket from Arthur Santana (4 points) briefly reduced that lead to four, a run at the end of the half plus an NBA range buzzer beater by B. Jones left the bedazzled L.I.C. team down 40-25.

In the second half, things didn't get much better for L.I.C. as another trey from Jones along with peripheral points from freshman Marvin Prochet (5 points) and other players put Boy & Girls up by 24 points with 14:50 still remaining in the game.

With a large cushion, Coach Elmer Anderson subbed out his starters. Although L.I.C did make some headway with scoring from X. Jones and Sadji Camara (13 points) they were still down by 20 when Coach Anderson brought his starters back in a few minutes later. B. Jones and Fludd promptly bumped the lead back up to 55-32 and for the balance of the game, Long Island City remained in Boys High rear view mirror.

Elmont takes out Forest Hills, 56-48

The final game of the evening featured and abundance of sloppy play and turnovers by both teams but Elmont was winning the battle in the mud early on. With scoring from Marc Campbell (11 points) and Dan Alexander (12 points), Elmont would somehow go in a 13-0 run. The players from Forest Hills, who were scrambling to put the ball in the basket just once, were being held to a donut. Finally 6'6" senior swing man Arif Mehmetaj (18 points) scored two free-throws with 11:17 left in the half to end their embarrassment.

Those free-throws would spark a 9-0 run by Forest Hills as Jaden Edwards (16 points) joined in and scored back-to-back followed by an and-1 by Mehmetaj with 9:31. Forest Hills would make a run at the lead but Tristan Brown (6 points) would draw a foul while nailing a three-pointer. The four point play would give Elmont a 32-24 lead at the end of the half.

In the second half, play continues to be disorderly but Forest Hills managed to cut Elmont's lead to 5 points with 4 minute left. The Queens, NY team was gaining momentum and with 1:40 left to play, Edwards drew a foul and suddenly Forest was only down 50-47.

Forest Hills was getting second chance opportunities but they were negated by turnovers and poor ball management. As a result, Elmont would stave off Forest Hills comeback attempt and live to play another day.

Dozo (B) will play Holy Cross in the quarterfinals on Saturday 10/22 @ TBD.